Tell Me About Savage Worlds (please)...

[pawsplay]

I think GURPS is a great system, but definitely see it as standing on opposite ends of the generic spectrum from Savage Worlds. Savage is all about being light weight and providing a vehicle for fast, furious cinematic play. It definitely achieves what it set out to do IMO.

I'm not sure there is a spectrum, and I wouldn't put GURPS at the end of it. GURPS is pretty lightweight, at its core, and it can definitely do fast, furious cinematic combat. Running a forty person fight in GURPS isn't necessarily harder than in SW. You can certainly adjust the dials, if you want, but there is nothing that says GURPS has to slow and heavy.

Mind you, character creation in GURPS does tend to be more involved.

Admittedly, I can't think of very many generic gamses, so among them, GURPS might be on the heavier end, simply because there are so few and a number of them are very light.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I'm not sure there is a spectrum, and I wouldn't put GURPS at the end of it. GURPS is pretty lightweight, at its core, and it can definitely do fast, furious cinematic combat. Running a forty person fight in GURPS isn't necessarily harder than in SW. You can certainly adjust the dials, if you want, but there is nothing that says GURPS has to slow and heavy.

Mind you, character creation in GURPS does tend to be more involved.

Admittedly, I can't think of very many generic gamses, so among them, GURPS might be on the heavier end, simply because there are so few and a number of them are very light.

Certainly GURPS is incredibly customizable. And I agree you can use GURPS for fast and furious play (though I don't think it handles that as well as SW). One of the premises of the design mentioned in the rule book is you can use as much or as little as you want. But I still tend to think of GURPS as a much more robust, comprehensive and involved system than Savage Worlds. The skill system alone is far more detailed. Personally I like them both very much, and would use each one for different types of campaigns.

 

[pawsplay]

Certainly GURPS is incredibly customizable. And I agree you can use GURPS for fast and furious play (though I don't think it handles that as well as SW). One of the premises of the design mentioned in the rule book is you can use as much or as little as you want. But I still tend to think of GURPS as a much more robust, comprehensive and involved system than Savage Worlds. The skill system alone is far more detailed. Personally I like them both very much, and would use each one for different types of campaigns.

In theory, I would think Savage Worlds would be good for Star Wars, but as I noted above, you would have to define new powers, and SW doesn't have a lot of traits for things people in Star Wars do. I started working on a GURPS conversion for Star Wars, and that actually worked a lot better... but is still unfinished due to the labor involved. I'm not quite ready to go back to D6, but I could really go for something halfway between GURPS and SW in terms of moving parts. That is partly the impetus for my new space opera RPG project.

 

[Bedrockgames]

In theory, I would think Savage Worlds would be good for Star Wars, but as I noted above, you would have to define new powers, and SW doesn't have a lot of traits for things people in Star Wars do. I started working on a GURPS conversion for Star Wars, and that actually worked a lot better... but is still unfinished due to the labor involved. I'm not quite ready to go back to D6, but I could really go for something halfway between GURPS and SW in terms of moving parts. That is partly the impetus for my new space opera RPG project.

I think GURPS would work great for star wars. I've played a number of attempts at Star Wars for Savage Worlds (mostly stuff found on the internet), and none of them satisfied everyone at the table for one reason or another. With star wars there is so much, I pretty much would rather go with a ready made game such as d6 Star Wars or Saga (there are just so many things to customize like races, the force, etc).

However if you have the time and the drive for it, I bet it will come out cool. Have you thought of just designing a completely new system for it from the ground up?

 

[amerigoV]

In theory, I would think Savage Worlds would be good for Star Wars, but as I noted above, you would have to define new powers, and SW doesn't have a lot of traits for things people in Star Wars do. I started working on a GURPS conversion for Star Wars, and that actually worked a lot better... but is still unfinished due to the labor involved. I'm not quite ready to go back to D6, but I could really go for something halfway between GURPS and SW in terms of moving parts. That is partly the impetus for my new space opera RPG project.

I have played a bit of this conversion, but I did not play a Jedi so I do not know how get the Force was implemented (it was for a pbp) http://www.savageheroes.com/conversions/Savage-Star-Wars-6.0.pdf.

There are other conversions on that site as well. Given the pulp roots of star wars, SW should be able to make it hum.

 

[pawsplay]

I think GURPS would work great for star wars. I've played a number of attempts at Star Wars for Savage Worlds (mostly stuff found on the internet), and none of them satisfied everyone at the table for one reason or another. With star wars there is so much, I pretty much would rather go with a ready made game such as d6 Star Wars or Saga (there are just so many things to customize like races, the force, etc).

However if you have the time and the drive for it, I bet it will come out cool. Have you thought of just designing a completely new system for it from the ground up?

You can basically run GURPS Star Wars using the core book, GURPS Psionics, and Ultra-Tech; it's all there. The trick is designing a few custom traits, picking over the power list for Jedi, designing Star Wars-specific species and occupation templates, etc. I haven't have time this month to finish it, but I intend to.

It's actually going on the back burner while I work on my new project: a d20-based space opera game. It's definitely going to be built to do Star Wars, if you wanted. I've come to a realization that playing with licensed properties usually leads to heartache, one way or another. So I'll probably keep working on GURPS Star Wars, cuz I want to and it shouldn't be that hard to finish, but my magnum opus is going to be a new game with new rules and a new galaxy.

 

[Mallus]

Thanks again for all the responses.

We're playing in 3 hours, so I'll get my 1st taste of the system in action. The one thing I noticed is SW doesn't do long-duration or long-range magic/wahoo effects (no hour-long buffs or continent-spanning teleportation in a casters basic spell repertoire). Is this accurate?

It's no big deal for the pulp sci-fi campaign, but we've been talking about converting an old magic-heavy 3e game of ours to SW. As DM, it's a feature, not a bug, but it is something to be mindful of if we do convert.

Also, re: SW and Stars Wars... just reading over the Explorers Edition and Slipstream, the two seam like a good and easy fit. Force User becomes an Arcane Background, Jedi w/lightsabers who are aware of their attackers can use their Parry as the TN against ranged attacks, the Force could be represented by various Powers and Edges --it's not like Jedi/Sith do much with it aside from telekinesis, lightning-shooting, and crazy long-jumps, the Jedi Mind Trick could be a Test of Will, and so on.

 

[Bedrockgames]

It's actually going on the back burner while I work on my new project: a d20-based space opera game. It's definitely going to be built to do Star Wars, if you wanted. I've come to a realization that playing with licensed properties usually leads to heartache, one way or another. So I'll probably keep working on GURPS Star Wars, cuz I want to and it shouldn't be that hard to finish, but my magnum opus is going to be a new game with new rules and a new galaxy.

That sounds good. I always thought a space opera RPG would be cool if the GM built his own worlds the way you do for a fantasy game. A generic space opera d20 game would rock.

Have you played Tales from the Floating Vagabond.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Thanks again for all the responses.

We're playing in 3 hours, so I'll get my 1st taste of the system in action. The one thing I noticed is SW doesn't do long-duration or long-range magic/wahoo effects (no hour-long buffs or continent-spanning teleportation in a casters basic spell repertoire). Is this accurate?

It's no big deal for the pulp sci-fi campaign, but we've been talking about converting an old magic-heavy 3e game of ours to SW. As DM, it's a feature, not a bug, but it is something to be mindful of if we do convert.

Also, re: SW and Stars Wars... just reading over the Explorers Edition and Slipstream, the two seam like a good and easy fit. Force User becomes an Arcane Background, Jedi w/lightsabers who are aware of their attackers can use their Parry as the TN against ranged attacks, the Force could be represented by various Powers and Edges --it's not like Jedi/Sith do much with it aside from telekinesis, lightning-shooting, and crazy long-jumps, the Jedi Mind Trick could be a Test of Will, and so on.

Good luck with the game!

 

[pawsplay]

Let us know how it goes!